Keyword Research, SEO, and Backlink Strategies for Link Building

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The Social SEO: Currently, a highly important factor is the social element of your content and how it’s being shared across the internet. With the launch of Google+ and Pinterest, these sites are launching content to the top of the search results pages, even over your content that you’ve published much earlier and have worked to get it there.

I know you’re busy, yet still want to improve your online exposure and influence. Boy, do I feel your pain. That’s where I step in to help. You do need help, right?

“Andrea Kalli provided professional, friendly and fast service. She created keywords, put them on my website and created backlinks to my website and my webpage ranking has dramatically increased. She was a pleasure to work with and very service minded, always willing to answer all questions.” – Tess Whitty of Swedish Translation Services

We help our clients build traffic through strong content marketing and social sharing strategies. If you’re interested in creating quality unique content for your website, blog, and your external content sources, then we can definitely help with that. We do not claim to promise any kind of traffic numbers. That’s not the type of business services we offer.

For clients interested in my Website SEO Services, this breakdown should help. The power trio includes:

Keyword Research projects are in-depth and extensive research.

There could be just one keyword research project, or several depending on what directions the initial results take us and how many variations you want me to explore for you. Most of the time it’s just one, and sometimes two. All the while, I’m looking for hidden opportunities for you to tap into. You and I will work together to determine the most relevant keyword phrases for your business.

That’s truly the whole point of me doing this part. To help you identify targeted keyword phrases that are ripe for the picking.

I always set my clients up to track their search engine ranking – in Google and Bing. That way the foundation is started for setting a benchmark in determining how successful the SEO campaign strategies are. There’s nothing more satisfying than watching your pages climb in the search engines after a campaign.

Keyword research offers not only ideas on how to shape your website content, it also provides ideas on new blog and article content, always focusing on keyword phrases that are lower in competition yet still being searched on by people visiting the search engines. Many times the keyword phrases will not be the typical ones you would think to use when describing your own business.

If you’re having a hard time ranking higher in the search engines, this is the way to make the climb upward.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is what is done once the right keyword phrases are identified. It should be the first step in your SEO improvement strategy. Typically, I can average 30 minutes per website page for performing on-page website SEO. In doing this, I’m determining what needs to be changed “under the hood” of each page and I’m also determining what improvements should be adopted in your content.

Many times the content changes are simple sprinklings of the targeted keyword phrases identified for each page. Nothing drastic, but they make a huge improvement in how the search engines perceive the relevance of each page’s content. It’s not the same keyword phrases repeated over and over, but they will be variations on the core keywords, and utilizing some long tail keywords whenever appropriate.

Don’t underestimate the importance of this. It’s these small changes that really add up and make a big difference overall.

I can either make the changes for you, or I can prepare some documentation for your website person. Whatever works best for you. It takes me a bit longer to prepare the documentation.

When done properly, successful on-page SEO adjustments will bring you immediate results in higher traffic. You’ll want to make sure your web copy is compelling enough and ready to make the sale and close the deal.

Sometimes we need to experiment with keywords. There may be keywords we have targeted that are just not pulling in the traffic expected, nor are they converting your traffic to customers. Tweaking and trying things out is often the only way to massage the campaign to truly fit your business. Magic wand aside, this takes some serious involvement and evaluation on my part if you want the most effective SEO campaign.

However, it’s important that you know this should not be the stopping point. The surge of traffic you’ll see immediately will typically die down in a fairly short amount of time unless you continue to add valued content on your site and work on your link building strategy, as described in the next section. A blog is a great way to add industry-relevant information your visitors will find helpful.

More ways to keep the traffic coming into your site include utilizing other resources such as social networks, article directories, and video and content-sharing sites to create some internet buzz around your business and brand. Discuss topics that your target audience would find helpful, even if it is a little outside what you normally offer. This is a great time to start thinking “outside your information box”, yet still staying somewhat tied to your core business offerings.

Branch out a little bit. Think to yourself “What other types of information could my target audience be interested in that I would be willing to provide for them? How can I help them?”

You should strive to become a valued information resource for your niche and industry.

On-page SEO helps your site to gain relevance for those keyword terms.

Backlink Strategies (aka Link Building, off-page SEO) is also very important, yet can be the most time-consuming and frustrating of the three. When it comes to backlinks (links coming into your website from external websites) quality is more important than quantity. This is more difficult to price out because it’s really an ongoing effort.

Step two is to look at other common link building techniques such as:

creating additional quality content on your website

Social Networking sites

Q&A sites

video sharing sites

eBooks

authentic guest blogging

links from satisfied client’s websites

Other valuable opportunities can include links from places where you have sponsored something, or have provided donations to. Perhaps you’ve done some pro bono work for a friend’s budding online business or venture. See how many areas we can get into here?

How has Google’s Panda and Penquin algorithm changes affected how you build back links?

Valued backlinks help your site to gain authority for those keyword terms. They influence your search engine rankings. I think what I want most to tell you about the current state of building links in today’s post-Panda and post-Penguin environment is about your anchor text. You know the text that you use when you link to your website? That is anchor link text. It used to be that any reputable SEO would tell you not to use “Click Here” as your link text, or that you should use the same link text over and over again to rank for a particular keyword. These days, nothing could be further from the truth. This strategy has taken a complete turnaround in the opposite direction. Use natural variations in your content and in your anchor text links.

This is one of those “rinse and repeat” ongoing tasks as keyword phrases change, your competition changes, their backlinks change, and so on. Even your own business services and products can change and evolve over time.

This ongoing process is known as building your link profile.

It’s a good idea to set aside and commit to spending a minimum of several hours a month on this. If that’s too much, invest at least 2-3 hours a month ongoing.

You should always be on the lookout for valued link opportunities. The real stuff, not from link farms or other “sounds to good to be true” sites.

Also important is the quality of the site that is linking to you.If you are being linked to from a low-quality or spammy website and it’s hurting your website rankings, do whatever you can to get that linked removed. If all else fails, your other option is to use Google’s latest Disavow tool in your Google Webmaster Tools. Before using, find out more about the Disavow tool at this SEOmoz blog post to see if you should use it. That being said, the vast majority of sites do not need to use this tool in any way.

As you can see, it all revolves around keyword research. Everything builds from there. You’ll reap the greatest rewards by implementing all three (keyword research, on-page SEO, and link building) into a complete Search Engine Marketing strategy.

The combination of gaining both authority and relevance is your ultimate goal.

I hope you found this information helpful in determining what is involved in these types of projects, how they are priced, and how I can help you reach your business goals.